G'day All,
I mentioned in my post over in the Gallery, that I'd made a 'Pole Lathe' on which I'd turned my awl hafts. I thought I'd post a little 'how to' sheet I drew up on making one, as a Christmas/New Year's present. Providing you have a heavy forked branch available, you can make one of these in about 4 hours and for around $10! And they are a precision instrument. Also, I have on the sheet, use 45# fishing line. Since then I've found a lighter, braided, fishing line is better. File the thread off the ends of the coach screws the make them smooth points.
Tip: If you want to make a container, first drill a hole large enough for the lathe's 'centre' to go in, and about the depth you want the bowl to be, and then turn out the wood around it and 'hey presto'.

And open. If the lid gets a little loose over the years (I've been using this for about 1 1/2 decades), rub a little wax around the lip. The 'turbine' pattern inside the lid is produced by letting a light weight chisel vibrate as you cut. I think it's known as 'Chatter'.

Oh, and use complete branches where-ever possible, it's much stronger as the growth rings travel around the work, instead of through it. When it's centred in the work, the pith core makes a good spot for the centre bolts to locate (and for a ready made place to drive in awl blades).
Pole lathes are meant to be used with green or semi-green timber; this means that there is very little dust. I've found that cutting the branch and then using it in a couple of days works well. Set the lathe up in the shade to stop the wood from drying out too fast as you turn it. When finished, take the wood turning inside to gently season. Any sharp chisel will work, and they don't have to have long fancy handles on them. I've used a 'spoon bit', from an old brace drill, on it's own with no problems (only about the length of my hand span). If the chisel catches in the work, it doesn't 'buck', the drive cord just slips around.
The shavings you make can be used to impart a polish to the work piece. Grab a good handful of them and grip around the work while it's spinning. Beware though, a lot of heat can be generated.
Cheers

So, when you are making your awls, do you temper them? If so, any idea what Rockwell hardness you end up with or try to achieve? Finally, do you endeavor to do any differential hardening so the tips are harder and thus can get sharper, but the shaft and/or curve are a bit softer and hence less brittle?

G'day Lance,
Yes I do temper the curved awls. The music wire can put grooves in files when new, so I anneal it before shaping (cut a bunch with a cut-off wheel on the angle grinder and stuff them into our wood stove's fire box overnight). Then I spin them (in a drill or lathe) and file a short taper for the tang, flip 'round and file a long taper for the business end, leaving the very end slightly blunt. While spinning, work through various grits of wet'n'dry paper until you have a high polish. Using a pencil blowtorch, set up so that it's still on the work while I shape it (the wire cools *really* quickly), I heat up the relevant areas to bend and shape the awl. I also give the tip of the awl a slightly heavier smack to spoon it a little so that when sharp it will cut a slightly wider hole than the curve of the awl following. Do the preliminary shaping and sharpening of the tip.

Red heat and quench; polish by hand (very brittle at this stage); heat the thickest part of the awl, with the tang's tip in a pair of pliers, and maybe a 1/3 of the awl's length very gently and slowly. I aim for the cutting tip to be a straw colour, gently progressing to a blue at the thickest part. Quickly quench. Hand polish and sharpen. If you muff up the temper, just red heat and quench again, polish and re-temper.
Having said all this, I don't get it right myself all the time, and sometimes they either snap or bend in use.
Takes me about 20 - 40 minutes to make a curved awl, and I can make them as small as I like for a few cents in materials.
Cheers

It is common practice to use a pair of dividers to mark seam allowances on patterns...making lines parallel to an edge. That or a special set of "fork" shaped tools set for specific distances. And either way works well.

But if you want to add a margin to a pattern whether in the making of a larger "cutting" pattern or to a piece of leather, there is another way that I borrowed from woodworking. And it's slicker than a slug in a bucket of butter.

Essentially what you need are a set of discs with a hole in the center. If you want to add a 5mm turning allowance, for instance, the disc would be 10mm in diameter. If the discs are made correctly--completely flat on the bottom and with a sharp even edge and the hole as small as necessary, this idea works like a charm.

If you have a metal lathe these could be made of brass; if you have a wood lathe, or know someone who does, any fine grained, hard wood will work.

Mine are made of either boxwood or osage orange, IIRC.... (click on photo to see larger version)

holes in center just large enough to allow the lead from a mechanical pencil to touch the patterning paper

french curve is very thin zinc

DWFII--HCC MemberWithout "good" there is no "better," without "better," no "best."
And without the recognition that there is a hierarchy of excellence in all things, nothing rises above the level of mundane.

If you seek you will find. I have been on the road for past 6 months, for my job, so I have been buying things. I wanted a set of Berg pincers. Well, patiently looking pays off. For less than 150. I get home next week to clean, inspect and play.

I'm not sure anyone knows what that tool was really for. If anyone does it would be Al, but, IIRC, he expressed some uncertainty in his comments in Salaman's book. I could be mistaken.

DWFII--HCC MemberWithout "good" there is no "better," without "better," no "best."
And without the recognition that there is a hierarchy of excellence in all things, nothing rises above the level of mundane.

This post is a nice pleasure for the eyes of a leather tools collector as I am. I discover some beautiful tools.
For those who like leather tools (saddler, harness maker, shoemaker ...) you can see a part of my collection by this link (on a french forum dedicated to leather) : http://travail-du-cuir.fr/les-outils/me ... t1208.html

DWFII--HCC MemberWithout "good" there is no "better," without "better," no "best."
And without the recognition that there is a hierarchy of excellence in all things, nothing rises above the level of mundane.